little things
by vivaciousRingo
Summary: Because life is empty without those simple little things that make it seem brighter. Written as a Valentine gift for one and only E-kun! Warnings: Just one swear word.


**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters nor am I making any money writing this story.**  
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****Note: **Nakamaship drabble. You can say Nami/Luffy just to put a label. Written on Valentine Day for E-kun (**School Escapee**) from **Yaoi Supernova Author's Guild**. For being a great friend who can easily make my day brighter with only a couple of his silly jokes. Thank you E-kun! *hugs*

Not beta'ed. I wrote it in... around an hour while lazing and listening to some melancholic music. Mainly OneRepublic "All fall down" is to be blamed for that. It was supposed to be light and funny and my idea got turned 180 once again, lol. Feedback, please?

**-xx—xx-**

**Little things**

**-xx—xx-**

Everyone has something to cover up, needs somewhere to hide.

Everyone puts on a mask each day to hide many imperfections of a soul.

Nami's mask, before she met the men that changed her fate, was a common one. Aloof and annoyed; mistakenly uncaring.

She'd been wearing it for almost a decade. But what is a single decade when in reality she had to keep it up for half of her life? She could barely remember how it was before the... episode.

Long enough she'd started to forget things. How to make friends, how to be kind, how to care.

They were all lost behind the mask, because every time she started to let it fall, tried to let someone in, it always went wrong. But she learned this harsh lesson at the very beginning.

Though a mere child in adults eyes but she grasped the _reality_ quickly. She swallowed her salty tears then which soon turned into a taste of a bitter defeat on her tongue and she made a resolve. It was hers and _only_ - burden to carry. No point involving outsiders who felt nothing for her case and would only want to use her at best.

Money talked, bullshit walked. Pirates you made business with, not friends.

But the unexpected happened. _They_ had barged into her life.

The walls she had built around her heart crumbled along with the infamous Arlong Park.

She had still been trying to keep her defenses up. Call it instinct. It was hard to change suddenly her behavior patterns even though she knew she was safe among _them_.

It had been a weak, embarrassing attempt at times and soon she was seen through. After being confronted by two perceptive black eyes she had started to let _them_ in.

Step by step, inch by inch. She laughed more, she loved more. Her life, the sea and… nakama.

Before she had no one to run for comfort. Nojiko understood, was her safe port when sea was angry. But she no longer allowed herself to rely on her, or any human for that matter.

They were too precious.

Too fragile.

Any time she started to forget this, or started to care; the _memories_ - it would attack her. The screams, the sound of the pistol going off, and a single figure she loved most crumbling to the ground. They reminded her of why the wall was there, and why she hid behind it.

But it was all in the past now.

Now she lived a different life. Did things she loved to do not because someone forced her, but because she simply _liked_.

All people have moments when they fall down. She was that fortunate that she found the most precious thing on this world that no amount of money could buy.

A _nakama_ who helped her stood up and fight for her freedom.

Resolve shined through Nami's eyes. That's why she was going to do this. She sat to her desk where she usually worked on maps and placed a piece of paper before her.

Her left eye twitched involuntarily, but she stilled the impulse to crumble the sheet. It wouldn't do any good to waste an expensive paper, she reasoned with herself.

No matter how embarrassing, pointless and fucking stupid it was in her opinion… she was going to finish making Valentine cards for her idiotic, obnoxious and irritating the hell out of her on a regular basis crewmates_. _

Luffy wanted and everyone knows what Luffy wants he always gets it. No questions asked. She had to listen to _the Captain_ unconditionally, you know. And definitely it wasn't because _their_ influence made her appreciate _the little things_ she was spared when growing up.

"_Definitely not"_, she snorted to herself and drew a shapely heart in the right corner of the white sheet.

Her hands weren't sweating because of excitement and nervousness about drawing something for fun for the very first time in her life; it was the thought of money they'd have to pay her for her work. Surely. She smirked, already loving the look on their faces as she showed them her new_ "mask". _

Mask of a free, independent woman who worships _little things_ life has to offer with all her being.

Not mere slave.

Not anymore.

And not as long as she has them by her side.

**fin**.


End file.
